It has been 50 years now since the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) established its Aquaculture Department (AQD) with the long-term goal of conducting research, developing technologies, disseminating information, and training people in the farming of fishes, crustaceans, mollusks, and seaweeds for food, livelihood, equity and sustainable development.
The AQD’s mother organization, the SEAFDEC, is an autonomous inter-governmental body established six years earlier, in 1967. Its member countries include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. It has been based in Tigbauan, Iloilo since its inception.
The Philippines is an archipelagic country with some 7,641 islands and a long coastline of 18,000 kilometers while coastal waters cover an area of 266,000 square kilometers. These geographical attributes make the country the most likely place to host SEAFDEC’s Aquaculture Department which began its mission in 1973. The Philippines, as host, provides AQD the physical facilities and the funds for its operations. Our Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Technical and Administrative Committee (PTAC) for SEAFDEC oversees the operations of the AQD.
The Aquaculture Department inaugurated the facilities for Black Tiger Shrimp Broodstock and Milkfish Larval Rearing at its headquarters in Tigbauan town, Iloilo province last week, coinciding with the celebration of the golden anniversary of the department.
While the technology transfer program can be implemented in any of the member-states, SEAFDEC-AQD’se two new facilities are still mainly to boost the shrimp and milkfish industries of the Philippines. “These facilities can provide good-quality aquaculture seeds to our fish farmers,” said the SEAFDEC-AQD Research Division.
The Black Tiger Shrimp Broodstock Facility can primarily provide disease-free broodstock of tiger shrimp, which is one of the more sought-after shrimp species that were in decline over the past several years. The facility has four separate 120-ton broodstock tanks that can produce 80 million post-larvae annually.
Meanwhile, the Milkfish Larval Rearing Facility has four separate 500-ton broodstock tanks. These tanks can produce 320 million eggs and 256 million larvae annually while the larval-rearing tanks and natural food tanks can produce 10.8 million to 18 million fish fry per year.
These important strides in shrimp and bangus (milkfish) technology and production are shared by the AQD with various universities, fishery schools and government agencies in the Philippines and even abroad. This is because the AQD maintains its strong linkages with foreign research and academic institutions and international agencies.
It is interesting to note that through the years, the Aquaculture Department has developed technologies on the production of catfish, giant freshwater prawn, grouper, abalone, mangrove crab, mangrove red snapper, milkfish, sea bass, seaweed, sea cucumber, tiger shrimp and tilapia. It is also into the development of cost-efficient feeds.
We value the SEAFDEC’s role in the nation’s fisheries and food production and hope that they continue to enhance their expertise and achievements in the next 50 years and beyond.